Novelist and journalist Dave Hill

September 07, 2007

"Politicians now frequently quote research showing that, by 22 months, it is too late for many children because their development has already fallen far behind that of their peers in middle-class homes. This finding, shocking as it is, misses the bigger picture. As [Leon] Feinstein reports, even those children from the lowest socio-economic groups who are doing well at 22 months then tend to fall back relative to other children. The process continues throughout childhood, and it operates both ways: the initially low-achieving middle-class children improve their position, while the position of the high-achieving working-class children declines....

In other words, during their school years, children's performance, far from being equalised, is aligned more closely with their social origins. This might seem a depressing conclusion, but Feinstein argues it needn't be. As he puts it, children's educational development is 'malleable', and if everyone were more aware of that, we might make more progress in equalising opportunities....

Working-class children fall behind because their homes - however loving and well-intentioned - don't and often can't provide the same support for formal learning as more affluent homes. Given there's a limit to how much we can change the homes, we may have to consider changing schools, and the way they treat children and parents, more radically than we have done so far."

September 06, 2007

August 29, 2007

Beverley Hughes has been at it again. A report on the efficacy of the government's early learning strategy - pre-school nurseries, Sure Start centres - by Durham University academics published yesterday found that no obvious improvement in the cognitive development of pre-school children has occurred in the six years since the measures were introduced. Just as with all and any criticism of ContactPoint, Hughes simply dismissed the Durham survey out of hand. Maybe, as she claimed - and as the Durham researchers acknowledge - there will be benefits eventually. But in a nation where far too many children enter primary school unable even to converse adequately, you might hope that the minister for children - of all people - would be a little less quick to dismiss considered evidence that her policy might not be working. Or, sadly, you might not.

June 29, 2007

"The number of marriages in England and Wales has slumped to the lowest level on record, it was announced today. The 10% cent fall reversed three years in which an increased number of people had tied the knot. Provisional figures from the Office for National Statistics showed there just were just 244,710 weddings in 2005. In London the decrease was even more marked, with marriages falling by 35%. The figures follow changes in the law by the Home Office in February 2005 to make it more difficult for non-Europeans to win the right to stay in Britain by marrying. The ONS said it was unclear how the new rules had affected marriage figures. However, with regard to the sharp decline in the capital, its report said: 'Clearly the effect of the change in the law is one possible factor.' The long-term trend in marriage has been falling since 1973, the ONS said."

But my favourite finding is this:

"Separate ONS figures showed there were 18,000 civil partnerships between gay couples between their introduction December 2005 and December last year...The ONS said 10% of men and 24% of women entering a civil partnership had previously been married."

May 18, 2007

"You've had an argument with your parents. The worst one yet. You're frightened. You run out of the house and you keep going. It's 2am, it raining and you have nowhere to go. And so the story begins. 100,000 children aged under 16 run away from home or care each year in the UK. One in six say they were forced to sleep rough or with strangers. One in 12 say they were hurt or harmed while away from home. Many children run from family conflict, abuse or neglect and end up on the street with no-one to turn to. They don't want to go home. They are scared to return...You would imagine that there would be support available in towns and cities across the country, that there would be places to go where a child can stay in safety. There are 9 refuge bed spaces for young runaways in the whole of the UK. We want the Government to fund a national network of safe emergency accommodation- enabling runaway children to escape from the violence, drug abuse and prostitution they can face on the streets."

April 26, 2007

"Have I ever mentioned the fact that I am a step-parent? We are what the textbooks refer to as a ‘blended family’: me and my son, The Husband and his daughter. We look like a perfectly normal family. The children very easily pass for siblings except that that they don’t invest their energy in trying to secretly maim, shame or kill each other. They get on like a house on fire. They are, in fact, great friends and will hug warmly when they come back to our house after a period with ‘the other parents’ (as we quaintly call them.) I have read a lot about step parenting. Partly for my work with young mothers where step parenting is becoming the norm, and partly to reassure myself that it really is as difficult as it feels sometimes."

April 13, 2007

Angela F on coming to terms with knowing she has the Huntington's gene:

"It's been what... nearly four months now almost since I found out. It has definitely changed some things, and it has definitely not changed other things. Some things it has changed for the better, and some things... well sometimes I just wish the knowledge had some kind of 'off switch'. Sometimes I forget things, sometimes I'm clumsy, sometimes I get distracted, sometimes I get angry, sometimes I get low, sometimes life is hard. These are all things that used to happen before I knew, but now they do take on a certain new signficance. You can't help but ask yourself if it has started. Little things can pull you back and make you remember, make you scared. And if it all comes at once, then it's even harder to pick yourself back up again."

April 04, 2007

"At least 120,000 bright children are effectively going backwards in secondary schools, prompting fresh fears over the way top pupils are taught. One child in five who was doing well in some core subjects at the end of primary school failed to make any further progress in the first three years of secondary education, according to figures obtained by the Conservatives. Many of the top performing pupils at 11 actually did worse by the age of 14."

The reporting of this is, of course, of a piece with the Telegraph's thankfully doomed dream of bringing back grammar schools. That said, these stats underline how uninspiring school years 7 to 9 are for an awful lot of children, not only "bright" ones. I've been writing a piece for the Guardian about home education. Can't see myself ever doing it, but researching those who do it well has strengthened my feeling that the state school curriculum is far too rigid to bring out the best in an awful lot of kids. Perhaps that is especially true for children in this age range. Discuss.

March 25, 2007

"Making the anemeter (I think I've spelt that wrong!) was fun. All the bits were supplied. Four pieces of oblong wood were attached using rubber bands to two cardboard crosses, to make a large cross. At the end of each piece we secured a polystyrene cup. One of these cups had an orange sticker put on it - this was to be our counter cup. A thin dowling rod was then put into the end of a thicker rod, slip over the plastic bead, and then the cross piece put on top. We took it out into the garden to test..."

Find out what happened here. And find out how to spell that difficult word here.

March 21, 2007

"Even in this supposed economic recovery, the Bureau of Labour Statistics reports, married moms of all classes are refusing to work at anything like the rates they worked in the late 1990s. The best-educated, richest mothers still have the highest opt-out rate, but they are not alone. Guess opting out is not a myth after all. Most of the coverage treats this story as a girly thing, letting female writers cover and argue about it in the 'Lifestyle' pages. They fall in love with their babies, they hope to return to work. Who cares what women choose to do? I do, and I have written that women who quit are making a mistake. But, no matter what you think of moms who opt out, their decisions speak volumes about the workplaces they flee. In interviews and on their mommyblogs, the women able to opt out tell a tale about the twenty-first century workplace that is uncannily reminiscent of the most radical Marxist theory. Maybe we put Marx into the dustbin too fast."

Could it happen here? Is it happening already? Dunno. I'll find out. So while I'm at it read of rest about what's happening in the States from Linda Hirshman.